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RALEIGH'S NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA, 1585, 



By EDWARD GRAHAM DAVES. 



[Reprinted from Magazine of History for May-June, 1893.] 




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SMITIISOM.W IlKI'Osrr 



RALEIGH'S "NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA " i— 1585 

By Edward Graham Daves 

" God hath reserved the countreys lying North of Florida, to be reduced unto 
Christian civility by the English nation." 

The coast of North Caroh'na is a long, narrow chain of low sand-hills, 
locally called the Banks, separating the ocean from the broad, shallow 
bodies of water, Pamlico and Albemarle sounds, which are the estuaries 
of the Neuse and Roanoke and other great rivers of the state. At irresf. 
ular intervals the line of the Banks is broken by narrow and ever-shifting 
inlets, through which flow the ocean tides, turning the inner waters into 
vast salt lakes, very rich in all varieties of sea products. 

Within this breastwork of barren downs are few islands; but there is 
one of supreme importance in the history of the Anglo-Saxon race in 
America. Roanoke island, about twelve miles long by three in width, lies 
between Roanoke and Croatan sounds, the shallow waters which connect 
Pamlico and Albemarle, and is two miles from the Banks, and thrice that 
distance from the mainland. Here was established the first English 
colony ; here was born the first white American ; here was celebrated the 
first Protestant rite within the present limits of the United States. It is 
the starting point of events as pregnant with great results in the wonderful 
history of our race, as was the landing of our forefathers on the shores 
of Kent, when they migrated from their Holstein homes more than a 
thousand years before. 

Yet, interesting and important as is the spot, how little is known of it 
by the great majority of Americans, or of this first endeavor to plant the 
sturdy English stock in the soil of the new world ! We are familiar with 
the bloody atrocities amid which St. Augustine was founded ; we are versed 
in the story of John Smith's adventures at Jamestown, and of the arrival 
of the Mayflower at Plymouth ; but this early attempt at English coloni- 
zation, with all its romantic incidents, has been allowed to sink almost into 
oblivion. It is not from lack of historical materials, for they are very 
abundant. While of the explorations of the Cabots we have no account 
from anyone who took part in their voyages, the story of Roanoke has been 

' The quotations in the text, unless otherwise stated, are from Hakluyt's Voyages, Vol. III. 
For a discussion of the fate of the lost colony, see an article hy Prof. S. B. Weeks of Trinity 
College, North Carolina, in the papers of the American Historical Association, Vol. V. 



fzze 

460 RALEIGfl'S " NEW FORT. IN VIRGINIA " 

fully told by Barlovve, Lane, Hariot, and White, leaders in the several 
expeditions. These precious documents, together with water-color illus- 
trations of the new country, have all been preserved, and no tale of adven- 
ture is fuller of picturesque incident and romantic interest. 

The colony bears the name of one of the most remarkable men in a 
very remarkable age — Raleigh, the cavalier, statesman, philosopher, his- 
torian, poet, mariner, explorer, hero, martyr — 

" The courtier's, scholar's, soldier's eye, tongue, sword." 

No character in legend or history is more brilliant or versatile. The period, 
too, is the most interesting epoch in the life of the English people. Bacon 
and Shakespeare were budding into manhood ; Sidney had written the 
Arcadia and Defense of Poesie, and was about to find his apotheosis on the 
field of Zutphen ; while Spenser was dreaming of the land of Faery, among 
" the green alders by the Mulla's shore." Frobisher had made his Arctic 
explorations, and Drake had returned to amaze all England with his story 
of the circumnavigation of the globe. 

The savage cruelties of Alva, and the massacre of St. Bartholomew, had 
kindled religious animosity into a fierce flame. The Prince of Orange was 
about to fall under the assassin's knife, and plots were thickening about the 
fair head of Mary Stuart, which were to bring her to the scaffold. The Re- 
naissance and the Reformation had broken the shackles of the intellect, and 
widened the horizon of thought; while the great discoveries had opened 
new fields for the display of human energy. Men were giving up the spec- 
ulations about the heavenly world, which had absorbed the intellectual 
activities of the middle ages, and were turning to the practical conquest 
of a world beyond the seas. England and Protestantism were gathering 
their forces for the last great struggle with Spain and the Latin church, for 
supremacy in the old world, and for mastery in the new. 

The English claim to North America, froin Newfoundland to Florida, 
was based upon the patent granted to John and Sebastian Cabot, by 
Henry VIL, in 1496, the oldest American state paper of England.* They 
reached our shores in 1497, before either Columbus or Amerigo Vespucci 
had discovered the mainland, and the meteor flag of England was the first 
that was unfurled on the continent. 

The earliest serious attempt at English colonization was made in 1578, 
by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, the half-brother of Raleigh. The latter was 
already conspicuous as a prciix chevalier and champion of Protestantism. 

' " Letters patentes of King Henry VIL, graunted unto John Gabote and his three Sonnes, for 
the discovering of newe and unknowen Landes. Quinto die Martii, anno regni nostri undecimo." 



RALEIGH'S "NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA" 461 

He had set before himself as the one great aim in life the humih"- 
ation of Spain, and the weakening of the power of the Latin race and 
rehgion. At the early age of seventeen he left the university of Oxford 
to join a band of a hundred gentlemen volunteers, who went to the aid of 
Coligny and the Huguenots— •' a gallant company, nobly mounted and 
accoutred, and bearing tor a motto on their standard, ' Let valour decide 
the contest.' " France was then aflame with the reports of the massacre 
of the Huguenots in Florida, and the idea germinated in Raleigh's mind 
that a mortal blow might be dealt to the enemy beyond the seas. From 
the service of Coligny he passed to that of William the Silent, and all the 
while was growing in him the conviction which he expressed later in life, 
that the possession of America would decide the question of the suprem- 
acy of Spain or England. " For whatsoever Prince shall possesse it, 
shall bee greatest, and if the king of Spayne enjoy it, he will become 
unresistible. I trust in God that he which is Lorde of Lords, will put it 
into her hart which is Lady of Ladies to possesse it." 

Raleigh took command of one of the seven small vessels of Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert's fleet, with which they hoped to reach our shores, and 
by establishing a colony check the progress of the Spaniards, and "put a 
byt into their anchient enemye's mouth." The attempt was a failure; and 
on the second expedition, in 1583, Raleigh, who had fitted out one of the 
five ships, was forbidden by the queen to accompany his brother. Gilbert 
took formal possession of Newfoundland, but he lost his best ship off 
Sable island ; and on the return voyage the gallant old sailor went down 
off" the Azores, with the Squirrel, his little craft of ten tons, his last noble 
words being, " Courage, my friends ! We are as neere to heaven by sea as 
by land." 

To Raleigh then came the scheme of colonization almost as an inher- 
itance; and on Lady-Day, March 25, 1584, Queen Elizabeth issued to him 
a patent of discovery, granting him "all prerogatives, commodities, juris- 
dictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, and pre-eminences, thereto or 
thereabouts, both by sea and land, whatsoever we by our letters patents 
may grant, and as we or any of our noble progenitors have heretofore 
granted to any person or persons, bodies politique or corporate." 

Raleigh equipped two vessels under command of Amadas and Bar- 
lowe, and from the pen of the latter we have an account of the expedition : 
"The 27 day of Aprill, in the yere of our redemption 1584, we departed 
the West of England, with two barkes well furnished with men and vict- 
uals. . . . The tenth of June we were fallen with the Islands of the 
West Indies. . . . The second of July, we found shole water, wher 



462 Raleigh's " new fort in Virginia " 

we smelt so sweet and so strong a smel, as if we had been in tlie midst 
of some delicate garden abounding with odoriferous flowers, by which we 
were assured, that the land could not be farre distant." 

This characteristic of what Lane afterward called the " Paradise of the 
world " may have been in -Milton's mind when he described the approach 
of the Evil Spirit to the garden of Eden : 

" Now purer air 
Meets his approach : . . . now gentle gales 
Fanning tlieir odoriferous wings dispense 
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole 
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail 
Beyond the Cape of Hope, north-east winds blow 
Sabean odours from the spicy shore 
Of Araby the blest ; with such delay 
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league 
Cheered with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles." ' 

" Keeping good watch, and bearing but slacke saile, the fourth of the 
same moneth [America's fated day!] we arrived upon the coast, which 
we supposed to be a continent, and we sayled along the same 120 miles 
before we could find any entrance, or river issuing into the Sea. The first 
that appeared unto us we entred, and cast anker about three harquebuz- 
shot within the haven's mouth : and after thankes given to God for our 
safe arrivall thither, we manned our boats, and went to view the land next 
adjoyning, and to take possession of the same, in right of the Oueenes most 
excellent Majestic." 

The explorers had coasted northward two days along the Banks, and 
entering at New inlet or Trinity harbour, had anchored not far from Roa- 
noke island. "We viewed the land about us, being, whereas we first 
landed, very sandie and low towards the water side, but so full of grapes, 
as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them, of which we 
found such plentie, both on the sand and on the greene soile on the hils, 
as well on every little shrubbe, as also climing towardes the tops of high 
Cedars, that T thinke in all the world the like abundance is not to be 
found." This is evidently the luxuriant North Carolina Scuppernong 
grape, whose strong aromatic perfume might well be perceived at some 
distance from the shore. ..." There came unto us divers boates, and 
in one of them the king's brother, with fortie or fiftie men, very handsome 
and goodly people, and in their behaviour as mannerly and civill as any in 
Europe. . . . The soile is the most plentifull, sweete, fruitfull and 

' Paradise Lost, IV. 153-165. 



RALEIGH'S " NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA " 463 

wholsome of all the worlde : there were above fourteene severall sweete- 
smelling timber trees, and the most part of their underwoods are Bayes 
and such like. . . . Wee came to an Island which they call Roanoak, 
distant from the harbour by which we entered seven leagues : and at the 
north end thereof was a village of nine houses, built of Cedar, and fortified 
round about with sharpe trees, to keepe out their enemies, and the entrance 
into it made like a Turne pike very artificially. . . . The wife of the 
king's brother came running out to meete us very cheerefully and friendly. 
When we were come into the utter roome, having five roomes in her house, 
she caused us to sit downe by a great fire, and after tooke off our clothes 
and washed them, and dryed them againe : some of the women plucked off 
our stockings and washed them, some washed our feete in warme water, 
shee herselfe making greate haste to dress some meate for us to eate. . . , 
We were entertained with all love and kindnesse, and with as much bountie 
as they could possibly devise. We found the people most gentle, loving 
and faithfull, voide of all guile and treason, and such as live after the 
manner of the golden age." 

These first explorers remained in our waters only two months, reaching 
England again "about the middest of September," bringing with them 
two of the natives, Wanchese and Manteo. Their arrival excited the 
greatest interest. Raleigh named the new country Virginia in honor of 
the queen, and our whole Atlantic coast was now regarded as under the 
dominion of France, England, and Spain ; the three districts of indefinite 
boundaries being known as Canada, Virginia, and Florida. 

This voyage of Amadas was merely one of exploration; but in 1585 
Raleigh fitted out a second expedition of seven sail and one hundred and 
eight men, under command of his cousin Sir Richard Grenville, to plant 
a colony in the paradise described by Barlowe. Grenville is another of 
the brilliant heroes of this period, and it is interesting to note the number 
of remarkable men who were connected with these American voyages. 
Gilbert, Raleigh, Grenville, Lane, Hariot, White, form as striking a group 
of adventurous spirits as can be gathered together in history. 

Full accounts of the experiences of the colonists are given by Lane. 
"The 9 day of April 1585 we departed from Plymouth, our Fleete con- 
sisting of the number of seven sailes, to wit the Tyger, of the burden 
of seven score tunnes, a Flie-boat called the Roe-bucke, of the like 
burden, the Lyon of a hundred tunnes, the Elizabeth, of fifty tunnes, 
and the Dorothie, a small barke : wherunto were also adjoyned for speedy 
services, two small pinnesses. . . . The 12. day of May wee came to 
an anker off the island of St. John de Porto Rico. . . . The 24. day 



464 Raleigh's " new fort ix Virginia " 

we set saile from St. Johns, being many of us stung upon shoare with the 
Muskitos. . . . The 20 of June we fell in with the maine of Florida. 
The 23. we were in great danger of wracke on a beach called the Cape of 
Feare, [the Promontorium tremendum of the old maps.] The 26. we 
came to anker at Wocokon [Ocracoke]. July 3 we sent word of our arriv- 
ing at Wocokon to Wingina [the Indian chief] at Roanoak. The 16, one 
of the savages having stollen from us a silver cup, we burnt and spoyled 
their corne and towne, all the people being fled. . . . The 27. our 
Fleete ankered at Haterask, and there we rested. The 25. August our 
Generall weyed anker, and set saile for England." 

Grenville thus remained two months on the Carolina coast, and then 
putting the colony under the government of Ralph Lane, returned home 
to take command of one of the " Sea-dogs" which were now making the 
whole Atlantic unsafe for Spain. His death in 1591 off the Azores, where 
also Gilbert had perished, is one of the most glorious events in British 
naval annals. The English squadron consisted of but seven sail ; the 
Spanish fleet numbered fifty-five. Engaged all night at close quarters 
with many of the largest Spanish galleons, at daylight Grenville found his 
little ship, the Revenge, literally shot to pieces, and not a man on board 
unhurt. Desperately wounded, he still refused to strike his flag; and when 
forced by his crew to surrender the sinking hull, he was taken on board 
the Spanish Admiral to utter the memorable last words : " Here die I, 
Richard Grenville, with a joyful and quiet mind ; for that I have ended 
my life as a true soldier ought to do, fighting for his country, queen, reli- 
gion, and honour." 

On September 3, 1585, Governor Lane wrote to Richard Hakluyt from 
" the New Fort in Virginia," which he had built at the northern end of 
Roanoke island, on the site of the fortified Indian village found there by 
Amadas : "Since Sir Richard Grenville's departure, we have discovered 
the maine to be the goodliest soyle under the cope of heaven, so abound- 
ing with sweete trees, and grapes of such greatnesse, yet wilde. . . . 
And we have found here Maiz or Guinie wheat, whose eare yeeldeth 
corne for bread 400 upon one eare. ... It is the goodliest and most 
pleasing Tcrritorie of the world : for the continent is of an huge and un- 
knowen greatnesse, and the climate is wholsome. ... If Virginia had 
but horses and kinc, I dare assure myselfe, being inhabited with English, 
no realme in CJiristcndome ivere comparable to it." 

He describes the whole neighboring country, and determines to change 
the site of the colony to a better port, for " the harborough of Roanoak 
was very naught ; " but the hostility of some of the Indian tribes ren- 



RALEIGH'S '• NEW FCRT IN VIRGINIA " 465 

dered all his efforts futile. Conspiracies were formed against the English, 
and their situation grew so precarious, that many turned a longing 
eye homeward. On June 10, 1586, Sir Francis Drake anchored off the 
coast with a fleet of twenty-three sail, and furnished Lane with a "very 
proper barke of seventy tun, and tooke present order for bringing of victual 
aboord her for 100 men for four moneths." But on the 13th there arose a 
great storm which drove her to sea, with many of the chief colonists on 
board, and she did not return. Despairing of any remedy for this disaster, 
and unable to pass another winter without succor from home, Lane deter- 
mined to abandon the colony. The men were bestowed among Drake's 
fleet, and arrived at Portsmouth on the 27th of July. 

" Immediately after the departing of our English colony out of this 
paradise of the world, the ship sent at the charges of Sir Walter Raleigh, 
fraighted with all maner of things in most plentifull maner, arrived at 
Hatorask ; who after some time spent in seeking our Colony up in the 
countrey, and not finding them, returned with all the aforesayd provision 
into England. About foureteene days after the departure of the afore- 
sayd shippe. Sir Richard Grenville Generall of Virginia arrived there ; who 
not hearing any newes of the Colony, and finding the places which they 
inhabited desolate, yet unwilling to loose the possession of the countrey, 
determined to leave some men behinde to reteine it: whereupon he landed 
fifteene men in the Isle of Roanoak, furnished plentifully with all maner 
of provisions for two yeeres." 

Besides Lane's narrative of his explorations in the waters of North 
Carolina, of his relations with the Indians, and of the various adventures 
and vicissitudes of the first colony, we have a " Briefe and true report of 
the new found land of Virginia" by Thomas Hariot, " a man no lesse for 
his honesty than learning commendable," the scholar of the expedition, and 
the inventor of the algebraic system of notation, described in his epitaph as: 

Doctissimus ille Harriotus, 

Qui omnes scientias coluit, 

Qui in omnibus excelluit. 

Mathematicis, philosophicis, theologicis, 

Veritatis indagator studiosissimus. 

His report, addressed to "the Adventurers, Favourers, and Welwillers 
of the enterprise for the inhabiting and planting in Virginia," is a very full 
and interesting account of the varied products of the new country, and of 
the manners and customs of the natives. " There is a kind of grasse in the 
country, upon the blades whereof there groweth very good silke. . 
There are two kindes of grapes that the soile doth yeeld, the one small and 

Vol. XXIX.— No. 5.-30 



466 Raleigh's " new fort in Virginia " 

sowre, of the ordinary bignesse, the other farre greater and of himselfe 
lushious sweet [the Scuppcrnong]. . . . A kinde of graine called by the 
inhabitants Pagatowr [Indian corn], about the bignesse of English peaze ; 
but of divers colours ; white, red, yellow and blew. All yeeld a very white 
and sweete flowrc. . . . There is an herbe called by the inhabitants 
Uppowoe ; the Spanyards call it Tabacco. The leaves thereof being 
brought into poudcr, they used to take the smoake thereof, by sucking it 
thorow pipes made of clay, into their stomacke and heade; from whence it 
purgeth superfluous fleame and other grosse humours : whereby their bodies 
are notably preserved in health, and know not many grievous diseases^ 
wherewithall we in England are afflicted. They thinke their gods are 
marvellously delighted therewith : whereupon they make hallowed fires, 
and cast some of the pouder therein for sacrifice: being in a storm, to 
pacific their gods, they cast some into the waters : also after an escape from 
danger, they cast some into the aire. . . . We our selves used to sucke 
it after their maner, and have found many wonderfull experiments of the 
vertues thereof : the use of it by so many of late, men and women of great 
calling, is sufficient witnesse. . . . Openauk are a kinde of roots of 
round forme [the potato] found in moist and marish grounds: being boiled 
or sodden, they are very good meat. . . . The naturall inhabitants are 
a people clothed with loose mantles made of deere skinnes, and aprons of 
the same round about their middle, all els naked. . . . For mankinde 
they say a woman was made first, which by the working of one of the gods, 
conceived and brought foorth children ; and in such sort they had their 
beginning. . . . Some of the people could not tell whether to thinke 
us gods or men, the rather because there was no man of ours knowen to die, 
or that was specially sicke : they noted also that we had no women among 
us. Some therefore were of opinion that we were not borne of women, and 
therefore not mortal, but that we were men of an old generation many 
yeeres past, then risen againe to immortalitie. Some would likewise 
prophecie that there were more of our generation yet to come to kill theirs 
and take their places^ 

In no wisj discouraged by the failure of this costly experiment at colo- 
nization, Raleigh fitted out another expedition of three vessels in the fol- 
lowing year, under command of John White, to whom we are indebted for 
the story of this second colony. For the first time the enterprise had an 
element of permanence, by including among the emigrants women and 
children. The intention was to make a settlement on the shores of the 
Chesapeake, but through the treachery of a pilot Roanoke island again 
became the home of the colonists. 



RALEIGH'S " NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA " 467 

" In the yeere of our Lord 1587, Sir Walter Ralegh intending to per- 
severe in the planting of his Countrey of Virginia, prepared a nevve Colonic 
of one hundred and fifty men to be sent thither, under the charge of John 
White, whom hee appointed Governour, and also appointed unto him twelve 
Assistants, unto whom he gave a Charter, and incorporated them by the 
name of Governour and Assistants of the Citie of Ralegh in Virginia. 
Our Fleete being in number three saile, the Admirall a shippe of one hun- 
dred and twenty Tunnes, a Flie-boat, and a Pinnosse, departed the 26 of 
April from Portsmouth. . . . About the 16 of July we fel with the 
maine of Virginia, and bare along the coast, where in the night, had not 
Captaine Stafford bene carefull, we had bene all castaway upon the breach, 
called the Cape of Feare. The 22 of July wee arrived at Hatorask : the Gov> 
ernour went aboard the pinnesse, with fortie of his best men, intending to 
passe up to Roanok foorthwith, hoping there to finde those fifteene men, 
which Sir Richard Grenville had left there the yeere before. . . . The 
same night at sunne-set he went aland, and the next day walked to the North 
ende of the Island, where Master Ralfe Lane had his forte, with sundry 
dwellings, made by his men about it the yeere before, where wee hoped to 
find some signes of our fifteene men. We found the forte rased down-e, 
but all the houses standing unhurt, saving that the neatherroomes of them, 
and also of the forte, were overgrowen with Melons, and Deere within 
them feeding : so wee returned to our company, without hope of ever see- 
ing any of the fifteene men living. The same day order was given for the 
repayring of those houses, and also to make other new Cottages." 

The settlers, numbering ninety-one men, seventeen women, and nine 
children, set to work to rebuild the fort, and to make for themselves arr 
English home. Soon after their arrival occurred two incidents of extreme 
importance in the life of the colony. 

"The 13 of August our Savage Manteo was christened in Roanoak, 
and called Lord thereof and of Dasamonguepeuk, in reward of his faith- 
full service. The 18, Lienor, daughter to the Governour, and wife to 
Ananias Dare, one of the Assistants, was delivered of a daughter in 
Roanoak, and the same was christened there the Sonday following, and 
because this child was the first Christian borne in Virginia, shee was named 
Virginia." 

The baptism of Manteo and of the first Anglo-American child are the 
beginnings of the life of the English church in the new world. The 
name Dare has been given to a county of North Carolina on Pamlico 
sound, and its county-seat is the village of Manteo on Roanoke island ; 
a happy and permanent association of these Indian and English names 



468 RALEIGH'S " NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA " 

with the locality where they were first brought into interestinfr conjunc- 
tion. 

"The 22 of August the whole company came to the Governour, and 
with one voice requested him to return himselfe into England, for the 
obtaining of supplies and other necessaries for them ; but he refused it, and 
allcaged many sufificient causes why he would not. . . . At the last, 
through their extreame intreating constrayned to return, he departed from 
Roanoak the 2"] of August." The next day he set sail, destined never again 
to see his daughter and grandchild, and after a terrible voyage reached the 
coast of Ireland on the i6th of October. 

This is the last that is known of the lost colony, whose fate has given 
rise to so much interesting speculation, and whose blood it is thought may 
be traced to-day in the Croatan or Hatteras Indians of North Carolina. It 
was three years before succour came from the old world, for England in 
the meantime had needed every ship and every sailor in her life-and-death 
struggle with Spain and the invincible Armada. Efforts were made to 
reach the colony, but they were unsuccessful, and not until the summer of 
1590 did Governor White arrive off the North Carolina coast. 

'• The 20 of March the three shippes, the Hopewell, the John Evangelist, 
and the little John, put to sea from Plymmouth. . . . The 23 of July we 
had sight of the Cape of Florida, and the broken Hands thereof. . . . The 
15 of August we came to an anker at Hatorask, and saw a great smoke rise 
in the He Roanoak neere the place where I left our Colony in the yeere 
1587. . . . The next morning our two boates went ashore, and we saw 
another great smoke ; but when we came to it, we found no man nor signe 
that any had bene there lately. . . . The 17 of August our boates were 
prepared againe to goe up to Roanoak. . . . Toward the North ende of 
the Island we espied the light of a great fire thorow the woods: when we 
came right over against it, we sounded with a trumpet a Call, and afterwardes 
many familiar English tunes and Songs, and called to them friendly ; but we 
had no answere ; we therefore landed, and comming to the fire, we found the 
grassc and sundry rotten trees burning about the place. . . . As we 
entered up the sandy banke, upon a tree, in the very browe thereof were 
curiously carved these faire Romane letters, C R O : which letters we knew 
to signifie the place where I should find the planters seated, according to a 
secret token agreed upon betweene them and mc, at my last departure 
from them, which was that they should not faile to write or carve on the 
trees or posts of the dores the name of the place where they should be 
seated : and if they should be distressed, that then they should carve over 
the letters a Crosse + in this forme, but we found no such sign of dis- 



RALEIGH'S " NEW FORT IN VIRGINIA " 469 

tresse. . . . We found the houses taken downe, and the place strongly 
enclosed with a high palisado of great trees, with cortynes and flankers 
very Fortlike, and one of the chief trees at the right side of the entrance 
had the barke taken off, and five foote from the ground in fayre Capitall 
letters was graven CROATOAN, without any crosse or signe of dis- 
tresse." ... No further trace was found of the colonists, except buried 
chests which had been dug up and rifled by the Indians, " bookes torne 
from the covers, the frames of pictures and Mappes rotten and spoyled 
with rayne, and armour almost eaten through with rust. . , , The season 
was so unfit, and weather so foule, that we were constrayned of force to 
forsake that coast, having not seene any of our planters, with losse of one 
of our ship-boates, and seven of our chiefest men. . . . The 24 of Octo- 
ber we came in safetie, God be thanked, to an anker at Plymmouth. 
Thus committing the reliefe of my discomfortable company, the planters 
in Virginia, to the merciful help of the Almighty, whom I most humbly 
beseech to helpe and comfort them, according to his most holy will and 
their good desire, I take my leave." 

Thus ended in disaster all of Raleigh's great schemes for planting the 
English race on our shores. They had cost him ;{;40,ooo, and the result 
was apparent failure; yet his greatest glory is these attempts at coloni- 
zation. The seed was sown which was eventually to yield the richest 
harvest : the direct fruit of these efforts was the colony of Jamestown, 
and Raleigh is the real pioneer of American civiHzation. It was he, and 
not King James, w^ho was destined to " make new nations," ' and to whom 
rightly belongs the proud title of imperii Atlantici conditor. 

■ For more than half a century the name of the first settlement, the 
so-called " City of Ralegh," disappears from our annals ; until in 1654 a 
company of explorers from Virginia reached Roanoke, and saw what they 
termed the "ruins of Sir Walter Ralegh's fort." The lapse of time has 
probably altered its appearance but little from what it then was, except 
for the changes wrought by a luxuriant vegetation. Its present condition 
is described in Harper s Magazine for May, i860: " The trench is clearly 
traceable in a square about forty yards each way. Midway of one side 
another trench, perhaps flanking the gateway, runs inward fifteen or 
twenty feet. On the right of the same face of the enclosure, the corner is 
apparently thrown out in the form of a small bastion. The ditch is gen- 
erally two feet deep, though in many places scarcely perceptible. The 
whole site is overgrown with pine, live-oak, vines, and a variety of other 
plants. A flourishing tree, draped with vines, stands sentinel near the 
' King Henry VIII., Act V., Sc. 4, 53. 



470 RALEIGH'S " NEW FORT IX VIRGINIA " 

centre. A fragment or two of stone or brick may be discovered in the 
grass, and then all is told of the existing relics of the city of Raleigh." 

Surely, these interesting historic remains should be saved from further 
decay, and kept intact for all time to come." No spot in the country 
should be dearer or more sacred to us than that which was marked by the 
first footprints of the English race in America. In this year of the great 
Exhibition at Chicago, and in these days of enthusiasm about Columbus 
and his explorations, it is especially important not to lose sight of the fact 
that he did not discover the continent of North America, and that the 
United States owe nothing to Spanish civilization. That influence was 
to mould the destiny of the peoples who gathered in the new world 
south of the Gulf of Mexico ; but Cabot with his English explorers was 
the first to set foot on our Atlantic coast, and it is to English enterprise, 
English moral standards, English political ideas, and English civil and 
religious liberty, that we owe the manifold blessings we now enjoy, and to 
which we must gratefully ascribe the marvelous progress and prosperity 
of our beloved country. 

' A plan has been formed to purchase and preserve the ruins of this fort, and all who may feel 
. an interest in the patriotic enterprise are requested to communicate with the writer. 



Press of J. J Littl 
Astor Place, New 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 441 290 4i 




